Writers’ Showcase reading series features poems and prose from 5 writers in Scranton on Feb. 27
From a press release:
The winter edition of the bi-monthly Writers’ Showcase reading series at the Olde Brick Theatre (126 W. Market St., Scranton) will be held on Saturday, Feb. 27 at 7 p.m. and will feature varied writers Harold Jenkins, David J. Bauman, Mason Crawford, Jason Allen, and Alicia Grega.
The event is $4 and will be hosted by local poets Brian Fanelli and Dawn Leas.
Harold Jenkins double-majored in physics and philosophy at the University of Scranton, where his poetic efforts were thwarted by a professor who struck through every line of his submission for the literary quarterly and then admitted she had no idea what a “mayfly” was anyway. He spent 20 years in industry before taking up writing again.
In late 2011, he accidentally encountered the Northeastern Pennsylvania Writers’ Collective at the former Vintage Theater in Scranton – twice – and decided to join them. With their encouragement and feedback, he refined his skills as a short story writer and began writing poetry again, presenting his work at open mics throughout NEPA. Many of his poems and short stories can be found on his blog, Another Monkey.
David J. Bauman’s work often uses place as a metaphor for person, drawing on inner and outer landscapes to explore his experiences as father, son, and partner. He’s a past winner of the Savage Poetry Prize from Bloomsburg University and the Academy of American Poets. He has poems published or forthcoming in San Pedro River Review, Blue Hour Magazine, Contemporary American Voices, T(OUR), and “Watershed: A Journal of the Susquehanna,” and he currently has multiple chapbooks in search of a publisher.
An avid birder and book nerd, he runs a small branch library in the Wilkes-Barre area and blogs regularly at The Dad Poet.
Mason Crawford is a junior in high school and part of the youth-run nonprofit Breaking Ground Poets. He has been performing and writing for the last two years and has been on stages as internationally known as Youth Speaks’ Brave New Voices.
Crawford has had the honor of opening a show for famed poet Rachel McKibbens. He likes to sadly tell people he played the baritone in middle school, where he had the opportunity to perform at the the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.
He can usually be found at home enjoying stand-up comedy, documentaries, Julia Roberts movies, and his menagerie of eight cats.
Jason Allen is a poet and prose writer whose work has appeared in Oregon Literary Review, Passages North, Paterson Literary Review, Contemporary American Voices, Cream City Review, Ragazine, and many other venues. His poem “Pop” received third prize from the 2014 Allen Ginsberg Awards and, more recently, selections of his poetry and prose were nominated for a Pushcart Prize and the AWP Intro Journals Prize. His debut poetry chapbook, “Gunmetal Blue,” has been well-received since its release by Jane’s Boy Press in 2015, and his full-length poetry collection, “A Meditation on Fire,” is forthcoming from Southeast Missouri State University Press.
He has also completed a memoir and two novels and is hopeful that they will soon find a home. He’s grateful to have lived this long and hopes to meet Tom Waits and buy him a cup of coffee. He loves tattoos and funny-looking dogs.
Alicia Lynn Grega has written a dozen full-length and one-act plays since 1991. Most recently, “Banger’s Elixir” premiered at the Scranton Fringe Festival in October 2015. A retrospective volume of poetry titled “Haptikos” was released in November 2015 with original artwork. Alicia is a content coordinator for the Times-Shamrock Community Newspaper Group, where she previously worked as a writer and editor at the Electric City arts and entertainment weekly for more than 14 years.
She was awarded an Individual Creative Artist Fellowship for Arts Commentary from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts in January 2009 and, in April 2009, she was one of 23 writers nationwide selected to attend the fifth NEA Arts Journalism Institute in Theater and Musical Theater at USC Annenberg.
Grega is a Breaking Ground Poets mentor, serves on the board of First Friday Scranton, and is a member of the Lackawanna County Council on Arts, Culture and Education. Learn more at about.me/AliciaGrega.
For more information on the reading, see the Facebook event page.
